Visitor arrivals down 4.5 percent
By Dan Nakaso
Advertiser Staff Writer
Hawai'i saw a slight increase last month in both visitors and visitor days from the U.S. West, the primary market that has kept the Islands' tourism industry churning since Sept. 11.
But the boost from the U.S. West wasn't enough to offset the continued sluggishness of the international visitor market to the Islands, and the total number of visitors dropped 4.5 percent for the month compared to the same month a year ago, according to figures released yesterday by the state Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism.
Visitor days — the total days all visitors spend in the Islands — rose 1.4 percent and arrivals rose 2.4 percent for the U.S. West market. But the Japanese market saw sharp declines for the month in both visitor days, which were off 13.7 percent, and arrivals, which were down 19.8 percent.
Tourist arrivals from the U.S. East were off 0.9 percent in August from a year ago, but visitor days were up 1.6 percent. Canadian arrivals fell 16.4 percent and visitor days fell 0.8 percent.
Visitor arrivals are off about 7 percent compared to the same time last year; visitor days are off about 5 percent at 40.04 million days.
Looking at the past four months, however, the number of visitor days has improved steadily, coinciding with an improvement in hotel occupancy levels as reported by Hospitality Advisors LLC.
Some segments of the hotel market, such as Kaua'i are doing better than last year, according to Hospitality Advisors. But statewide occupancy overall continues to lag last year's levels.
Many of the Neighbor Islands benefited from domestic arrivals. Increases were seen on Maui (up 8.2 percent), Moloka'i (96.2 percent), Lana'i (65.4 percent) and the Big Island (4.6 percent) compared to August 2001.
International arrivals were down on the Neighbor Islands in general. The only increases were on Lana'i (up 448.2 percent) and Moloka'i (222.7 percent).
Total visitor spending for July also was down 1.9 percent to $884 million, according to DBEDT. Year-to-date visitor spending has fallen 5.5 percent — to $5.9 billion — compared to the same time last year.
Spending by the U.S. West market continued to be the largest of all — at $318.5 million — but fell 0.2 percent. The U.S. East dropped 4.8 percent to $229.7 million.
The Japanese market also was off 3 percent to $209.6 million. But the $256 per-person daily spending by Japanese visitors remains the highest of all groups and increased 17.4 percent from July 2001.
